RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Sel­wyn Jag­mo­han was a man who took pride in work­ing mul­ti­ple jobs to sup­port his fam­i­ly. A land­scap­er, co­conut ven­dor and small con­trac­tor, he had dreams of build­ing his own home this year.

But to­day, Jag­mo­han sits in a ram­shackle house in Pla­tan­ite Trace, Bar­rack­pore, and is now an am­putee strug­gling to cope af­ter a hit-and-run ac­ci­dent that changed his life for­ev­er.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, Jag­mo­han said he nev­er be­lieved that one day he would be im­mo­bile and un­able to work.

“It does be hard. Every day I study my leg. I can’t do any­thing prop­er­ly again,” he said with eyes down­cast.

Re­call­ing the in­ci­dent, Jag­mo­han said on Feb­ru­ary 26, he was sit­ting with his wife Jan­ice Out­ar, un­cles and oth­er fam­i­ly mem­bers when an un­marked ve­hi­cle came out of nowhere and hit them, with the dri­ver flee­ing the scene.

“Five of us got bounced down. I had a leg that was to­tal­ly mashed up. They had to am­pu­tate it above the knee,” he re­called.

He said the day be­fore the ac­ci­dent, he and his friends had an in­ci­dent at the beach and he be­lieves this was linked to the hit-and-run.

Jag­mo­han said al­though the po­lice found the car in­volved in the ac­ci­dent along the Pe­nal Rock Road and the dri­ver was iden­ti­fied, no charges were ever laid.

“The po­lice in Bar­rack­pore are very un­just be­cause they nev­er charge this man. They gave him back his car and re­leased him. No ar­rests were made. Since then, no­body came and looked for me, no­body called me,” he added.

Now faced with the harsh re­al­i­ty of his sit­u­a­tion, Jag­mo­han longs for the chance to walk.

“I was a work­ing man. Now I can­not work any­more. I can­not go any­where. Every day I study this. They took a re­port from me, but noth­ing was done.”

He said he went to the Po­lice Com­plaints Di­vi­sion in San Fer­nan­do but was told he had to get an ex­tract from the Bar­rack­pore po­lice. How­ev­er, Jag­mo­han claims the Bar­rack­pore po­lice do not want to give it to him.

“I went to the po­lice com­plaints, and they told me I have to get a re­port from the po­lice be­cause the man made a re­port against me. The po­lice nev­er gave me that re­port, so I don’t know what is go­ing on.”

Jag­mo­han said his loss of mo­bil­i­ty has al­so stripped him of his in­de­pen­dence.

“Every day I used to be work­ing. I was a co­conut ven­dor. Now it’s dif­fer­ent, and I have no in­come com­ing in. I can­not stand up. Too much pres­sure on one leg. I can­not even make tea for my­self,” he added.

Jag­mo­han said he now yearns for a pros­thet­ic leg.

“If I get a leg that will be very nice. I could walk, I could do cer­tain things again,” he added.

His wife, Jenice Out­ar, who has been by his side through­out this or­deal, said the weight of car­ing for him has tak­en its toll.

“It is very chal­leng­ing car­ing for him. When he had his feet he used to care for me, but now I have to do every­thing. It’s a sac­ri­fice,” she said.

The cou­ple now rears rab­bits and ducks to earn a liveli­hood.

De­scrib­ing how the ac­ci­dent changed Jag­mo­han, Out­ar said, “He used to be a much hap­pi­er per­son. As he got up, he used to go to work, and now every­thing has changed.”

She said the ac­ci­dent im­pact­ed her as well.

“My foot was dam­aged too. While I was in the hos­pi­tal I had to sign the pa­pers to cut off his foot,” she re­called.

De­spite every­thing, Out­ar said she was thank­ful for their lives.

Guardian Me­dia con­tact­ed the Bar­rack­pore po­lice, who said the mat­ter is un­der in­ves­ti­ga­tion. A se­nior of­fi­cer from the South­ern Di­vi­sion was al­so con­tact­ed and he promised to make fur­ther in­quiries about the mat­ter. Any­one want­i­ng to as­sist Jag­mo­han can con­tact 277- 6996 or 291-0832. Do­na­tions can be made at Sco­tia­bank, High Street, Pe­nal, ac­count no 4022122.